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Friday, 18 February 2011

What's on the workbench!

...or body boxes to be more specific!

As ever, my room's a complete tip but while attempting to tidy up yesterday I decided I'd had enough of the overflowing shoe boxes of half finished/half mangled bodies that would most likely never get finished.

This is how they all looked when I put them all together...

...and after sorting them out...(note my rather obvious filing system XD)

I've accumulated rather a lot over the years as you can see...

I'll probably give away the remainder free on MHL as I'm never going to get round to doing anything with them and although they're all pretty awkward to work with, I only paid pennies for them in the first place so it's not like I'll be making a loss.

Anyway, aside from all the mangled corpses in the boxes, I've been working on a select few this week. I hope to get the majority of them finished up in time for the MHL Live in September so I can take them along to show as well as a few repaints to sell on.

First up is a custom I've been working on for several years, an MBH ('My Beautiful Horses') standing horse to a warmblood stallion. I gave him a sculpted plaited mane and tail, stallion anatomy and tried my best to sort out his seams and rough patches. Once he's had another coat or two of primer I'll be painting him to chestnut - possibly a semi portrait of my friend's horse Cruz's sire - Stonegrove Ace.

A Schleich warmblood this time - he'll probably be for sale once he's finished unless I get really attached to him in the meantime. I've been using nothing but acrylics so far and I think he's looking pretty good.

Schleich TWH to chestnut sabino. One of my favourite colours, ironically on one of my least favourite breeds! I love the mould though.

Another Schleich now, well, two of them really. Both falabellas are long anticipated commissions that I just haven't been in the mood to paint until now. (curse you artistic muse, curse yoooou!) This one will be silver dapple (I might end up redoing him from scratch as he's not looking great at the moment) and the other, palomino.

I'm also painting the PAPO Thoroughbred to perlino. While I was prepping her it struck me just how much the head reminds me of a Marwari's - an idea for a future custom perhaps?

I never had any Magpie shetlands until recently when I managed to aquire three in quick succession! It's a lovely little mould and aside from the tiny, tiny eyes is possibly one of the most accurate shetland models out there. This one has been resculpted, funnily enough by the person I'm painting the falabellas for and as I already have a black shetland in my show string, I decided to give him a bit of a makeover and make him piebald. As you can see, he still needs several layers...

I think this was another PAPO mould and I'm rather pleased with her progress so far. Once she's finished she'll be shown as a Dutch Heavy Draught although obviously that's a long way off still.

I've never been all that confident in repositioning so when I had a go at the superglue/bicarbonate of soda trick the other day, to say I was pleased was a rather large understatement. No longer would I have to drag out the horrible milliput to attempt to set a head, I could do it in seconds!

I recieved a box of G1 stablemates a year or so ago and haven't done much with them since then other than repainting one of the Arabs and lopping the head off the solitary Silky Sullivan. When I finally decided to do something about it, for some reason I decided to make her an Arab - probably so I could pair her up with the aforementioned repainted one. I think the neck is now a bit too long so I'd appreciate any feedback...

I never used to like flippy tails on arabs but they've really grown on me!

Another resculpt is this Hong Kong Breyer knockoff - oddly scaled to large stablemate/small Schleich size. One of his legs had snapped off and superglue alone wouldn't seal the break. I tried to pin it but the plastic was so brittle that that didn't work either so I ended up slapping some more superglue/soda on which worked wonders. Instead of the Saddlebred I was originally going for, to hide the join I'm now going to give him feathering and much more hair so he can be a Friesian instead.

Another superglue success was this old Classic Arabian stallion who'd been knocking around the body box with his head taped loosely to his neck for many months. I'll move his eyes down a bit as they're set too highly on his face and probably sculpt him some new ears as well.

Finally, a little stablemate etchie who has become something of a project. When I'm not working on him he lives on my windowsill next to my bed, along with a scalpel with a broken blade. (which I actually find easier to use) Because I've chosen such an awkward and painstaking pattern to etch, I tend only to work on him when I'm waiting for something or can't sleep which probably explains why I've done so little.

It probably looks really rough and sketchy there but I can assure you, he looks a lot better in person! He'll be a near maximum sabino when I'm finished with him - like this one, only Arab shaped. ;)

Speaking of cobby things, look who arrived in the post this morning? ;D

Mini Haggis! ^^ I've wanted one of these for AGES so thank you so much for selling him to me Clare! He needs a lot of work and I don't have a clue what colour to paint him eventually but I'm sure something'll come to me...

Anyway, that's it for now - go and have a nice chocolate biscuit for reading all that! :D

11 comments:

First off- I love your sorting method, LOL!! You have a great lot of awesome projects there. I am totally in love with the piebald shetty (always have a weak spot for shetty models), but I also love the powdery look of the chestnut sabino TWH. Very impressive (thinks I, after failing with etching on a Traditional Breyer) is that little Arabian from your windowsill. He will look great.

That first picture is awesome! And I love the Magpie Shetland. I've never seen that mold before but now I really want to get my hands on one, or six! I agree that Swap's new neck is a bit long, but handily with the baking soda trick it'll be pretty easy to fix!

I'm thinking of shortening Haggis' legs a bit as they've always seemed a bit on the long side, even if you look at him as a youngster! As far as colour's concerned, no idea but probably a sabino of some sort. XD

Magpie is/was a British company that started off in the seventies I think. They were bought over by Utterly Horses but they haven't done anything with them so their future isn't looking all that bright. :( The Shetlands were only made for a few years in comparison to the other moulds so they aren't quite so common.

http://www.modelhorsegallery.info/m/M-companies/MHCs_Magpie.html

I've got several Arabs, two welshies (one of which is a body) a donkey and the other two shetties.

Quote: "I'm thinking of shortening Haggis' legs a bit as they've always seemed a bit on the long side, even if you look at him as a youngster! As far as colour's concerned, no idea but probably a sabino of some sort. XD"

Excellent idea about the legs, it really looks as if he is on stilts, that is what bugs me about both the mini and the traditional version.The Sabino-whatever-colour *g* will suit him great. Somehow some "ragged" white markings really flatter Haggis, I have seen some that look great with such patterns.

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About Me

Greetings all, my name's Christine Sutcliffe and this is my blog.
I started it originally to showcase some of my model horse customs and the like but have since gone on to expand on the theme with modelmaking tutorials, guides and walkthroughs from college projects to my own personal work.
There isn't a specific subject I blog about - it can be anything from digital art to 1/12th scale miniatures and photography!
I also have a blog specifically for my photostories which is updated less often now as I haven't as much time to dedicate to my stories as I'd like.